One of the most hypocritical Bills of modern times returns to Parliament this week when the House of Lords debates the latest proposal to outlaw hunting with dogs. This is the fourth attempt to ban hunting and more than a hundred hours of parliamentary time have been spent on this Bill alone. For anti-hunt campaigners, it is the best hope to date for a ban.

However, those genuinely concerned about cruelty to animals should not celebrate yet, for the Bill is little more than a sop to an old Labour shibboleth. If animal welfare were truly the aim of the Bill, the Government would be addressing the far worse (yet legal) abuse of millions of birds and animals on UK farms.

Compare these figures. Each year, hunting with dogs kills 75,000 foxes, more than 1,500 hares, 1,000 mink and 150-200 deer. It seems a lot. But the figures are dwarfed by the hundreds of millions of farm birds and animals cramped wretchedly into cages and bred to grow so fast that their limbs break and vital organs fail.

Each year, UK farmers breed more than 30 million egg-laying hens, 800 million broiler chickens and 13 million pigs - the vast majority on intensive farms. In a highly competitive market, farmers are unlikely to take unilateral action to improve these conditions. And governments, too, are constrained by international trade rules.

None the less, there are things the Government could do. In Europe, the UK could exert much more pressure to improve farm conditions and recover its former respect as a leader on this issue. At home, Ministers could accept the claims of Compassion in World Farming that techniques of fast-growing for chickens is cruel and should be outlawed; it could follow Germany in outlawing the worst battery conditions; and it could properly enforce the European directive intended to provide pigs with better foraging conditions.

Those are four ways for Labour to show it cares about animal welfare. One for each hunting Bill.